The invention relates to a bottle crate according to the preamble of patent claim 1.
Bottle crates typically have a crate base which supports a framework for receiving bottles and for sidewalls that are permanently connected to the base and circumferentially arranged, so that stable and rattle free transport of filled bottle cases to a location of use is provided. Securing the bottles through the framework is therefore necessary in order to prevent damages, for example to gas bottles, through jolts or impacts, and to prevent the bottles from tipping over and furthermore to substantially prevent rattling so that respective rattling noises are avoided.
Due to mandated bottle refund and/or bottle return systems, a respective collection of empty bottles for return transportation has to be provided at vending locations for beverage bottles. This poses difficulties at numerous vending locations, in particular supermarkets, but also beverage stores, since various bottles are returned to this vending location empty, wherein the bottles differ from one another in height, diameter or similar, but still have to be received and returned. Often, suitable cases or containers for such return transportation are not provided. Therefore, empty bottles of this type are often placed in any containers for return transportation which oft leads to a destruction of bottles. Additionally, the containers with the empty material have to be transported to local collection sites where the different containers themselves cannot be used and therefore simply have to be disposed of.
Furthermore, yogurt beakers that are stackable with 180° offset are known from DE 195 10 084 C1, basket crates that are stackable with 180° offset are known from DE 920 5 337 U1, bottles crates that are stackable with 90° offset are known from DE 20 2004 009 031 U1, and DE 920 3 805 U1, bottle crates that are stackable with an offset are known from US 2005 02 30 281 A1, bottle crates that are stackable with a 180° offset are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,082,542 A and 4,304,334 A.